~ rescuing my ancestors from obscurity

Samuel Hurst Seager (died 1837)

My distant relative and fellow family historian Richard Seager has made an important breakthrough in our knowledge of Samuel Hurst Seager – one of my great great great grandfathers. Samuel was married to Fanny Fowle and their daughter, Fanny Sarah Seager, married my great great grandfather William Robb in 1836.

Until recently, we knew frustratingly little about Samuel. We knew that he was employed as a porter at the Inns of Court in London, and that he is buried in the Temple churchyard. We also knew that he died at 7 Crown Court, St. Clement Danes, on 25 November 1837, at the age of 59. But we didn’t know when or where he was born, or who his parents were.

Now Richard has discovered a record of the christening of a Samuel Hurst Seager on 7 November 1780 at St. Philip’s church, Birmingham. It would appear that Samuel was the son of yet another Samuel Hurst Seager (it’s a name that passes down through the generations – down to the renowned New Zealand architect of that name, who died in 1933) and his wife Elisabeth (possible maiden name Cash). Further research by Richard suggests that this earlier Samuel was probably born in 1742 in Kingswinford, Staffordshire, and may have been the son of William Seager and his wife Mary.

Moreover, it would seem that the Seagers were a well-established family in the Kingswinford / Brierley Hill area, and that they were prominent in glass manufacturing. Although the name ‘Hurst’ is probably an inherited maternal name, there could be a link with nearby Hurst Hill, perhaps?

When Samuel might have moved down to London, when and where he married Fanny Fowle, or what her origins were, remain a mystery.